As required by the Illinois School Code, our schools participate in fire, severe weather, bus evacuation and emergency response drills to ensure our students and employees know what to do should an emergency occur.
On Friday September 20th our school will participate in a lockdown drill. Our past experience in conducting drills has shown us that most students are able to participate with the understanding that it is just a drill. However, we do allow parents/guardians to exempt a child from the drill. Should you feel this situation would be too traumatic for your child or should you want more information about the drills, please contact me at 847-357-6600. Under state law, schools must still provide alternative safety education related to an active threat to students who do not participate in the lockdown drill.
If a school were to have a real Lockdown situation, not a drill, every phone number associated with your child’s record would be called using our notification system. We will also text and email parents/guardians. We promise to communicate with you as soon as possible. Please be patient as our first priority will be the safety of our students and staff.
While your natural instinct as a parent in an emergency is to go to your child’s school or to call the school office in an emergency, please understand that doing so may significantly impede the response capabilities of our local emergency responders. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to evacuate students to another location.
In addition to holding drills, we also focus on prevention by forming relationships with our students to provide support when they need it and so they feel comfortable reporting to us when they hear or see concerning behaviors. Please reinforce this with your children at home. Let them know that they can also come to you when they feel unsafe and remind them that they should report any suspicions and concerns about school safety.
After each drill, we reflect as a staff and with local emergency responders to determine if there are any procedures we might need to review with the staff and students.
The safety of your children is very important to our staff. Should you have any questions about this drill, please don’t hesitate to contact me. For more information, visit our website at sd54.org/safe-schools.
Lakeview Elementary